Headline Aug 12, 2014/

''' THESE AND THOSE : 

DODGIES OF TAXES '''

OVER   $26 Trillion   are missing from what I call,  ''the quality of life contribution, progress, support and transaction!''.

President Barrack Obama, so very often, likes to cite  ''Ugland House''   a building in the Cayman Islands that is officially home to  over:

18,000 companies, as the  ''epitome of a rigged system". 

But, but, but, but, Ugland House is not a patch on  Delaware   -population 917,092-  which is home to  945,000  companies many of which are dodgy shells.

''' Civilisation works  only   -if those who enjoy its benefits are also prepared to pay their share of the costs.'''

Companies, individuals, people that avoid  tax  are therefore very unpopular at the best of times,  -so it is just not surprising that:

When governments and individuals everywhere are  ''scrimping in misery''  to pay their bills, attacks are mounting on tax havens and those that use them.

In Europe the anger has focused on big firms. Amazon and Starbucks have faced consumer boycotts for using  ''clever accounting tricks''  to book profits in tax-havens while-

Reducing their bills in the countries where they do business.

David Cameron has put tackling corporate tax-avoidance at the top of the G8 agenda.

America has taken aim at  tax-dodging  individuals  and the banks that help them. Congress has passed the  Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act  (FATCA), which forces foreign financial firms to disclose their  American clients.

Any whiff of offshore funds has become a political liability. Only recently. -in America's presidential campaign, Mitt Romney  was excoriated by Democrats for his holdings in the Cayman Islands.

Then, just after, Jack Lewis, Barrack Obama's nominee for treasury secretary, came under fire for once having an interest in Cayman fund.

Getting rich people to pay their dues is an admirable ambition, but this attack is hypocritical and misguided. It may be good populist politics:

But leaders who want to make their countries work better should focus instead on cleaning up their own back yards and reforming their tax systems.

The archetypal tax haven may be a palm-fringed island, but as our research makes clear, there is nothing small about offshore finance.

If you define tax-haven as a place that tries to attract non-resident funds by offering light regulation,  low  -or zero- taxation and secrecy, then the world has 50-60 such havens.

These serve as domiciles for more than  2m   companies and thousands of banks, funds and insurers. Nobody really knows how much money is stashed away: estimates vary from way below to way, way above $20 trillion.

Not all these havens are in sunny climes; indeed not all are technically offshore.

The   City of  London,   which  pioneered offshore  currency trading in the  1950s, still specialises in helping non-residents get around the rules.

British shell companies and limited-liability partnerships regularly crop up in criminal cases. London is no better than the Cayman Islands when it comes to controls against  money-laundering.

Other European Union countries are global hubs of a different sort of tax-avoidance.

In the developing world, avoidance and  ''dodgy of damned''  have skilled themselves to the highest of all and every arts, even, say, performance arts.The great national past time, as I observed over a life time, was tax skimming.

Two hoots, they practice, even if this attitude drives your motherland to its knees!

What a damn shame!

The Honour and Serving of the Post continues. Thank you for reading. And don't miss the next one.

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world.  See Ya all on  !WOW!   -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Ali Baba And Alladin '''

Good Night and God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless